1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system that is able to discriminate between the interaction of an electronic stylus pen, finger(s) or user's appendage and a touch screen containing device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Touch-screen tablet computers allow a user the ability to interact directly with content displayed on the touch-screen of the tablet computer. These interactions can be conducted through various means, but typically is done through touch, by way of the user's fingers directly interacting with the screen, or through the use of a stylus pen or other type of input control device that contacts the screen based on movements made by the user. Typically, touch-screens distinguish touch inputs from stylus pen inputs by using various sensing technologies or input modes that the user has to select based on the operations the user wants to conduct on the touch-screen of the tablet computer. Other typical solutions require stylus pen inputs to originate from a stylus pen that is physically tethered to the tablet computer.
Collecting touch information from these types of interface mechanisms also introduces a number of challenges. Moreover, the process of reliably collecting touch information becomes increasingly more complicated where the computing device allows a user to input information using both a touch input mechanism and a stylus pen input mechanism. In the course of interfacing with the touch sensitive surface of the computing device with a stylus pen device, the user may inadvertently rest his or her palm on the touch sensitive surface. The computing device may then incorrectly interpret this inadvertent contact as a legitimate input activity. A similar challenge may confront a user who is intentionally using a touch input mechanism to control or input data to the computing device. In some cases, the user may attempt to apply a focused touch to the surface of the computing device, yet the user may accidentally brush or bump his or her hand against other parts of the display surface, causing accidental input events. These problems may understandably frustrate the user if they become a frequent occurrence, or even if uncommon, if they cause significant disruption in the task that the user is performing.
Moreover, due to limitation in the computing power of the computing device, a wish to increase the speed of the computing device by reducing the computational power required to collect and transfer the touch interaction data and/or the often limited nature of the data received from the touch sensing components of a third party's computing device on which a hardware and software application (e.g., “app”) maker's software is running, there is a need for a method that can distinguish between the different user inputs by use of a simplified data set that is created by the computing device from the interaction of the user's fingers, appendage and/or stylus pen. In some cases, the simplified data set includes the coordinates of a touch point and the time when the touch point was sensed by the touch sensing components. The simplified data set is generally a small fraction of the amount of the data that is commonly available from the touch sensitive hardware in a conventional touch sensitive display type computing devices today.
Despite the progress made with respect to operating touch screen tablet computers, there is a need in the art for improved methods and systems related to distinguishing different inputs provided to tablet computers in spite of the problems discussed above.